The devolution revolution is in full swing, with Angela Rayner setting out the government’s plans to give power away across England. Former Conservative special adviser Salma Shah joins the podcast team to explore what the plan contains – and whether it stands any chance of working?

Asylum is one of the trickiest issues facing this or any government. The author of a new IfG paper tells us why what has become a chronic policy problem and what could be done to fix it. Plus: Will Elon Musk’s money be making its way into British politics? 

Hannah White presents with Sachin Savur, Akash Paun and Millie Mitchell. Produced by Candice McKenzie.

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Pat McFadden – the minister for the Cabinet Office – is making a plea for an army of disruptors to sign up to the Civil Service and make Whitehall think like a start up. Jess Studdert, director of New Local, joins us to ask whether this is fresh thinking? Plus, Rachel Reeves has another plan to whip Whitehall into shape, and it’s a familiar one. The chancellor is on the hunt for efficiency savings. So where could they be found - and will they really make a difference?

Also: From rewiring the civil service to rethinking the prison service. Does the government have  plan to fix the prison service?

Hannah White presents, with Alex Thomas, Tom Pope and Cassia Rowland. Produced by Robin Leeburn for Podmasters

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Is that sound the heavy thud of a gauntlet been thrown down? The podcast team are joined by Peter Hyman, a former adviser to Keir Starmer – when he was a key player in designing Labour’s missions – and Tony Blair, to make sense of the government’s new Plan for Change.

What do the six new ‘milestones’ say about this government’s five missions? Do targets actually work? Why has Keir Starmer set this plan out now? And why is he sounding so frustrated with the civil service?

Plus: Sir Chris Wormald is the new cabinet secretary. So who is he, and what can he do to deliver the prime minister’s command to completely rewire the British state? 

Catherine Haddon presents.

With Jill Rutter and Nick Davies

Produced by Candice McKenzie

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After weeks of speculation, and many rounds of interviews, Sir Chris Wormald has been confirmed as the UK’s new cabinet secretary. But who is Chris Wormald, why has Keir Starmer appointed him, and how can he succeed as the country’s top civil servant?

David Lidington, the former minister for the Cabinet Office and Theresa May’s one-time de facto deputy prime minister, joins the IfG team to make sense of someone who is both the conventional pick and yet also the surprise choice for the job of the country’s top civil servant.

What does Wormald bring to the role? What is waiting in his in-tray? How exactly could he set about that big rewiring job? And what steps he can take to ensure the civil service can deliver Keir Starmer’s priorities?

Presented by Emma Norris.

With Cath Haddon and Alex Thomas.

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It’s a competition that has gripped the nation. The candidates have been whittled down. The country is on tenterhooks. Strictly? Of course not. We’re talking about the appointment of the next cabinet secretary. The Guardian’s Rafael Behr joins the podcast team to speculate about who might get the job – and what they need to do.

How can the government get more people back to work? It has published a new “Get Britain Working” white paper for starters, but what does it set out and is this any different to anything we have heard before?

Plus: Does the government have an electric car problem? 

Hannah White presents.

With Alex Thomas and Nehal Davison.

Produced by Robin Leeburn for Podmasters

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Keir Starmer has been on his travels again, but it has been a tricky week at home for the government. Tim Ross and Rachel Wearmouth, the authors of new book Landslide: The Inside Story of the 2024 Election, join the podcast team to discuss how Labour returned to power – and how Starmer and his team are faring. 

The Budget has gone down very badly with Britain’s farm owners and a private members’ bill on assisted dying is posing a big headache for Starmer. How much worse could things get? And from bruising encounters to a political bruiser, the former deputy prime minister John Prescott, a key figure in the last Labour government, has died. The pod team look back on Prescott’s legacy. 

PLUS: Labour is promising to set up a lot of new public bodies: 17 and counting. A new IfG report has been tracking their progress, and reveals how to succeed, or not, when setting these bodies up. 

Cath Haddon presents, with Giles Wilkes and Matthew Gill. Produced by Jade Bailey for Podmasters and the IfG.  

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We are living in a different world. Donald Trump’s world.

Kim Darroch, the UK's former ambassador to the US, joins the podcast team to make sense of what could be some jaw-dropping appointments to the Trump administration.

The UK government has been scrambling to make sense of it all too - responding in measured tones while potentially bracing for impact. So how should Keir Starmer handle the new Trump era?

Plus: COP29. The prime minister has been on his travels again - this time to Azerbaijan for a major climate change summit. 

Hannah White presents.

With Alex Thomas and Jill Rutter.

Produced by Candice McKenzie

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Michael Gove spent more than a decade as a senior government minister, including as secretary of state for education, justice and levelling up.  He was one of the longest-serving ministers of the last government – and one with perhaps the most ambitious plans for public service reform. He was also, arguably, the most successful at making those plans happen. 

To look back on his time in government, the reforms he introduced or tried to introduced, and to share his lessons for the current government and Conservative opposition, thew newly-appointed Spectator editor took part in wide-ranging and thought-provoking in conversation event with IfG Director Hannah White.

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Buckle up everyone. 

Donald Trump has won the US presidential election and will return to the White House after an extraordinary campaign featuring criminal convictions, assassination attempts, shocking language, and so much more.

So what does this tell us about the US? What does it mean for the UK? And how might the world change in the years to come? Scarlett Maguire of JL Partners, the pollsters that called the numbers right, and Michael Martins, a former US Embassy adviser, join the podcast team to explain an extraordinary week.

Plus: Kemi Badenoch is the new leader of the Conservative party. We’ll take a look at what this means for the opposition.

And finally: another huge story - well, at least for some parts of the IfG. A new ministerial code has been published. We’ve read it and will give you the lowdown.

Alex Thomas presents.

With Cath Haddon and Sachin Savur.

Produced by Candice McKenzie

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Budget day is over and Halloween is here - and Rachel Reeves certainly came up with some pretty scary numbers. 

Stewart Wood, a former adviser to Gordon Brown at the Treasury and No10, joins the podcast team to make sense of the chancellor’s statement. Will her plans - this is one of the biggest tax raising budgets in modern history - come back to haunt her? Will her new rules for borrowing spook the markets? Or will her announcements begin the process of bringing economic growth back from the near-dead?

Hannah White presents.

Produced by Candice McKenzie.

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Rachel Reeves’ first budget might well be one of the most consequential in years – and is the biggest tax-rising budget in over 30 decades. Spending is up too. As is borrowing. So what does this all mean for the economy, for the government, and for people’s pockets?

The IfG expert team gathered just a few hours after the chancellor’s statement to MPs to crunch the numbers and explain what the chancellor is trying to do. What decisions has Reeves taken on new fiscal rules, tax measures and public services? What does this budget mean for the government’s growth mission? Does Reeves have a credible plan for fixing the public spending “black hole”? And what does this budget reveal about this government’s priorities?

Jill Rutter presents. With Giles Wilkes, Tom Pope and Stuart Hoddinott.

Produced by Podmasters

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